Australian Immigration Daily News

Engineers Australia (EA) is the designated authority for assessing skills and competencies related to engineering occupations in Australia.  Migration Agents are able to lodge Skills Assessments with Engineers Australia on behalf of their clients.  From October 2018, Engineers Australia rolled out a number of new features designed to assist agents with skills assessment process.  The Portal which can be accessed by Migration Agents is now more intuitive to navigate and more user friendly. As registered users, Migration Agents will have access to all previous functions as well as new functions rolled out in October 2018.  

The online portal has another user friendly feature which includes the ability to add a secondary agent to an application.  To add a new agent, you will need to select the Add Agent button from the lead agent tools page. Before an agent can be added they will need to have a valid EA ID number and an account with Engineers Australia (which can be created for free). You will then need to search for the person you wish to add as an agent by their EA ID number and date of birth, and then selecting the Find Person button. 

Lead agents can transfer an application from a registered agent with their agency to another registered agent within their agency using the marked button. During this process you will be asked to provide the Application ID you wish to transfer and the agent you wish to transfer this application to. 

In the newsletter published by EA on 12 October 2018 EA addressed issues that were previously faced by many online system users, particularly the Time Out error and the Gateway error. They were plaguing customers and assessors alike and have been giving everybody a hard time: 

“We deeply apologise for all the system errors that have been plaguing the application system over the last 18 months, particularly the Time Out error and the Gateway error. They were plaguing customers and assessors alike and have been giving everybody a hard time. We appreciate your patience as we work hard to rectify these issues” 

Part of the revamp includes access to certain online features including “eQuals”.  Engineers Australia now has access to eQuals, allowing graduates from Australian Universities to share their qualification with Engineers Australia. Graduates should be familiar with this system as an account is usually created for them at University. From their accounts, they can now opt to share the documents with Engineers Australia. This allows for a quicker verification of the documents provided which should result in quicker processing times. 

EA confirms the main method of communication in relation to skills assessmen matters should be done via myPortal.  

myPortal also allows the following functionalities: 

• Enter the agent/agency’s postal and email address when registering themselves as agents on myPortal
• Enter the applicants’ personal details when registering the applicants on myPortal. This includes the applicants’ personal telephone, postal and email address
• Assurance is made that by having an application lodged through an agency or linked to one, communication regarding the application will be made through the agent. The registered agent linked to the application will receive an email notification along with further instructions whenever there is an updates to their clients’ application 

Fast Tracking of EA Skills Assessments: 

As part of the new services provided to online applications, Registered Agents will be able to request for their clients’ applications to be fast tracked.  This will ensure client’s application will be picked up by an assessor in five business days.  Completion of the applicant’s skills assessment application will depend on how completed their application is.  Engineers Australia is not responsible for the excess time it takes to finalise an assessment due to an incomplete application. Registered Migration Agents will be presented with this option prior to proceeding to payment. By clicking the fast track option and paying the relevant fee, the application will be placed into EA’s priority assessment queue. 

The current waiting times for Migration Skills Assessments by EA applications are: 

• Australian Qualifications & Accords Qualifications Assessment: 7 weeks
• Australian Qualifications & Accords Qualifications Assessment with Fast Track: 15 working days
• Competency Demonstration Report: 9 weeks
• Competency Demonstration Report with Fast Track: 15 working days
• Fast tracked applications: 5 business days 

Further information on new services offered by EA to Migration Agents is available here: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/For-Migrants/For-Migration-Agents